Interesting year for Popham… he's been shuffled around the system to fill in where needed like he's just organizational depth (and did a bit of the same last year), but when left at Kinston, he's having a pretty nice season. He's also now pitched 31.1 innings at Kinston this season and not walked a batter. His only problem has been the long ball (6 hr)... and that is a little worrisome in a pretty good pitcher's league.

What Jeff said. You always need to look at three things with promotions....1.) how a guy is performing/developing, 2.) their priority level to org and 3.) if there is an open spot above them. All three typically come into play, but before 1 and/or 2 can come into play something has to be done about 3.

Thought I'd share a little insight on the Giovonni Soto injury. Soto has left elbow ulnar nueritis without UCL tear... The last part is significant, there is no tearing of the UCL. I had this injury to my left elbow 3 yrs ago. My elbow has / had slight tear of UCL did not have surgery... The muscles around the nerve can actually wrap so tight that it begins to squeeze the nerve causing numbness and tingling, this can be worked around with rest and stretching out the muscles its simply the nature of things... You use muscles often they become stronger, in this case it's almost working against you bc of the injury. The good side of this is no tearing of the UCL, the bad side (last resort... If this continues) is his elbow could require ulnar nerve transposition -moving the nerve deeper into forearm- similar to what Anthony Reyes has endured (Reyes also required TJ).For perspective sake... 3 yrs later I still experience some minimal numbness and tingling the elbow (actually while I was reading about his injury) there is some weakness that has seemingly persisted but likely bc of slight tear and nerve irritation. The best case and likely case with the treatment Soto will receive is this was caught early there seemed to be no prior injury history, Soto's youth and precautionary treatment like rest and stretching I believe Soto will be fine but this is something to watch and could be more serious than it simply appears. As Soto matures more physically, hopefully he adds physical strength and size which could actually ease the torq placed on his elbow if combined with proper rest, limited innings / pitch count, stretching, strengthening and mechanics. Overall this could be a re-occurring injury but with no prior history hopefully this was caught before it really got started, a key could be watching his control and fb velocity.

Good start for Popham. Abreu is finally starting to hit the ball with some authority with hard hit double and triple last night. He also had two extemely good catches in the outfield. I have no idea where Frawley gets his power from.

Pomeranz pretty much dominated Lynchburg hitters last night for seven innings. I expect that may have been his last start in Kinston. He definitely appears ready for a new challenge.

I have been disappointed with Abner Abreu's performance since he was called up last year. Based on the reports that I read, I was expecting somebody that never showed up. But that looks to be changing. Abner has hit alot of balls hard lately with good results to show for it. His outfield play has been spectacular. The kid basically runs down everything. I believe he could play right field in the big leagues right now. He still has work to do in recognizing breaking pitches and improving the walk/strikeout ratio, but don't give up on this kid. With another 25 pounds and improvements at the plate, he may become what everyone thought he could be. And he's still only 21 years old.

ktriber wrote:His outfield play has been spectacular. The kid basically runs down everything. I believe he could play right field in the big leagues right now. He still has work to do in recognizing breaking pitches and improving the walk/strikeout ratio, but don't give up on this kid. With another 25 pounds and improvements at the plate, he may become what everyone thought he could be. And he's still only 21 years old.

Exactly. All the tools are there. I personally don't believe the plate discipline will ever materialize and he will wash out at some point, but he is still a good prospect with his power potential and his excellent defensive ability in RF. It really comes down to the bat with him and becoming more consistent making contact and a better approach. Probably will never happen, but sometimes the light can suddenly go on and things click.

Really is time to to consider moving a couple Kinston guys, Abreu, Abraham, Tice and Holt come to mind.... Not because they need (or one of them) it but it is time to get Aguliar up there, and possibly Monsalve even.

criznit2009 wrote:Really is time to to consider moving a couple Kinston guys, Abreu, Abraham, Tice and Holt come to mind.... Not because they need (or one of them) it but it is time to get Aguliar up there, and possibly Monsalve even.

Hey criz, I am not sure what you mean here. Are you talking about promoting any of these guys to Akron? Or just cutting them? Or a mix of the two? The reason I ask is that Abraham and Tice are not prospects or even good organizational filler. There is no chance they will succeed at an upper level IMO. Holt barely has a prospect pulse and is a fringe prospect at best, but he is worthy of organizational filler and little more. There is no evidence from his performance that he would be of any value to Akron now that I can see. Abreu is little more than an athlete that has major holes in his makeup. All the statistics show he would be absolutely lost in AA where pitchers routinely throw breaking balls and off speed pitches for strikes which he is helpless to recognize, much less hit. It is probably worthwhile keeping him around in case he shows some progress at Kinston but it is difficult for me to believe his recent spurt is any more than an isolated instance. I just don't see any talent at Kinston position players that is worthy of AA other than Perez, a backup catcher. If you want to cut the deadwood, so be it. But Akron has enough crappy ballplayers now, they don't need more refuse.

Abreu has finally gotten on a roll so let's not mess with him now. Let him keep hitting at Kinston and assuming he continues to do well, promote him to Akron at the start of next season. Just my two cents.

I wouldn't promote anyone from Kinston to Akron based on performance. I believe Abreu will play the whole year in Kinston, but is one of the few guys there who looks promising. There isn't single player in Kinston who should be promoted solely on performance. The real problem is a couple more guys in Lake County should probably be playing there in Kinston full time. Guys like Brunette and Tice in particular are not helping and Roberto Perez despite his nice OBP looks like he will always struggle at the plate. Think its time to bump Tice up to Akron (just to clear room) give Aguliar his spot and become the everyday 1st baseman. Abraham could also go to Akron, its not like Bellows is doing very much up there.

criznit2009 wrote:I wouldn't promote anyone from Kinston to Akron based on performance. I believe Abreu will play the whole year in Kinston, but is one of the few guys there who looks promising. There isn't single player in Kinston who should be promoted solely on performance. The real problem is a couple more guys in Lake County should probably be playing there in Kinston full time. Guys like Brunette and Tice in particular are not helping and Roberto Perez despite his nice OBP looks like he will always struggle at the plate. Think its time to bump Tice up to Akron (just to clear room) give Aguliar his spot and become the everyday 1st baseman. Abraham could also go to Akron, its not like Bellows is doing very much up there.

Hey criz, my point is that you don't need to kill Akron to get rid of Tice. He has no value at Akron or the talent to ever play there usefully. When an orgaizational player loses his usefulness and blocks a promotion, you simply cut him in some fashion. Bellows is a 3B. Abrahams in not a 3B. He cannot defend any positon. Maybe Bellows hitting will improve some more but I can assure you, since having watched Abrahams play 3B since college, that his sole value there is is willingness to try hard. You seem to believe that Abrahams mediocre bat at Kinston will somehow play better than Bellows recent bat at Akron. Let me assure you it will not. Abrahams swing is long and slow and will be eaten alive by AA pitchers who throw curves and offspeed. He will be much like the Bellows of early this year but does not have the hitting ability to improve. Next year, he will probably be a utility player and DH in Kinston when Ursela, who is rough but has some skills, likely ascends to 3B at Kinston. Akron's pitching is bad enough without two more dismal defenders like Tice and Abrahams and that goes for Brunette as well.

And three Ks in three plate appearances today. Sorry but I have to see a whole lot more to believe this is anything more than a hot week when he got a lot of weak fastballs and hanger breaking balls.

He's batting .407 for the month of July with 8 homers. That's over three weeks, not one. I watch him play almost every home game. For the first year plus, he rarely even made any loud outs. He has starting pulling the ball alot more and its has made a big difference. Granted, he has a long way to go, but if he can finish the year out in Kinston with a solid August, I think he reestablishes himself as a prospect. He really has got major league skills in certain areas.

And three Ks in three plate appearances today. Sorry but I have to see a whole lot more to believe this is anything more than a hot week when he got a lot of weak fastballs and hanger breaking balls.

He's batting .407 for the month of July with 8 homers. That's over three weeks, not one. I watch him play almost every home game. For the first year plus, he rarely even made any loud outs. He has starting pulling the ball alot more and its has made a big difference. Granted, he has a long way to go, but if he can finish the year out in Kinston with a solid August, I think he reestablishes himself as a prospect. He really has got major league skills in certain areas.

I hope you are right that Abreu will restablish himself as a prospect. The reason I use the one week ( 8 days actually) period from 7/16 to 7/23 is that is the only period that I see where his biggest issue IMO, K/BB shows significant improvement. Abreu's hot streak is nowhere near as long as Goedert's was last year and I did not believe in it either. I am just not a believer that his mental approach to hitting is now equal to his physical gifts but I will be glad when they do. This originally started because a poster wanted to promote Abreu and others out of Kinston to Akron to make room for some LC prospects. I am still not convinced he is ready for promotion but if you disagree, I can live with that. Personally, I prefer to see steady improvement over a continual period rather than a week or even partial month but that is just me. And you have read enough of my posts to know that I go by what I see when they play (or in this case on tape). Statistical analysis is fine but I call it like I see the swing mechanics and pitch recognition. IF you need confirmation, ask Tony if he recalls my disappointment at his perfomance in ST. That is what I saw then and I still see some of the same flaws today.

kslinger - Some of the flaws are still there. I think he should finish out the season at Kinston. I think one of the things that some forget because Abner has been in the system so long is that if he would have been from the US and played in college, he would probably be in Mahoning Valley right now. He basically wasted last year but is still young for the Carolina League.

What is intriguing about the guy is what could be possible IF he could correct his issues at the plate for good. In my opinion, he could be close to a 30-30 type player. He is still a longshot to do that, but most of the players that come through Kinston have no shot at being that caliber of player. I guess the organization will have to decide if they believe soon also because he would have to be placed on the 40 man roster soon, wouldn't he?

ktriber wrote:kslinger - Some of the flaws are still there. I think he should finish out the season at Kinston. I think one of the things that some forget because Abner has been in the system so long is that if he would have been from the US and played in college, he would probably be in Mahoning Valley right now. He basically wasted last year but is still young for the Carolina League.

What is intriguing about the guy is what could be possible IF he could correct his issues at the plate for good. In my opinion, he could be close to a 30-30 type player. He is still a longshot to do that, but most of the players that come through Kinston have no shot at being that caliber of player. I guess the organization will have to decide if they believe soon also because he would have to be placed on the 40 man roster soon, wouldn't he?

Hi ktribe, These rules about this stuff are not a strong point of mine. I agree completely about the upside, just not willing to commit that he has crossed that imaginary line. I am not sure anyone would pick him up in the draft until he has shown some aptitude at AA so that would be the guide for my opinion on the 40 issue. There is some big differences between what Abreu will see at AA and what he has seen the last year and a half at Kinston. He could experience early problems in AA because of the nature of his particular issues at the plate but if he has turned the corner, he could well adapt to the ballplayer you describe.

On another note, got my first couple of chances to see Trey Haley. He was up to 99 last time he pitched, but he is still all over the place. Needless to say, nobody is digging in at the plate when Haley's on the mound.

Hey Kslinger, I guess they'll have to pick up the Abreu discussion on the Cubs board, huh? His fate has probably been sealed for stardom now that the Indians have traded him. He was 1-4 with a single in his first game for the Daytona Cubs playing LF.

ktriber wrote:Hey Kslinger, I guess they'll have to pick up the Abreu discussion on the Cubs board, huh? His fate has probably been sealed for stardom now that the Indians have traded him. He was 1-4 with a single in his first game for the Daytona Cubs playing LF.

Amen ktriber! Hope that Aguilar is a portent of things to come where prospects are actually moved into the position players instead of organizational players like Casas and Gallas. I am not in favor of rushing prospects but there are players that could be comfortably moved both in and out of LC IMO. Although not a top prospect, Moncreif seems like a natural to move. Very likely to struggle, especially with LHP but he is an even better defender than Abreu IMO with similar athletic skill. By rights, he should have been there by now except for the attempt at pitching. He would be easily replaced from MV. Another in that regard is Monsalve. He will be a hitter and a pretty good catcher from what I see and he is easily replaced with a catcher from MV. There are some others who might fit including players at MV but I would settle for those two. When it comes to position players, Kinston is a talent wasteland. That happens in any organization but there is no reason to hold players back if they show enough skill to avoid embarrassment at A+.

Congratulations to the Kinston Indians. The team that couldn't hit straight rode good pitching into the playoffs. Hard to believe the final game was won by a pitcher promoted from LC, Goodnight, for this game and saved by the orgainzation's resident wild man, Haley. Looks like one more game at the "legendary".